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  • Roland Routier

Renault Roaming

Italy -- Croatia - ?
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  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Town rocks

    April 5, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Although famous for its cave homes, most of the post-medievil townsfolk preferred to build normal stone houses. These they blended with the rocks to make numerous photo-opportunities. Most of the churches are dug into the rock though and contain frescoes in various states of decay but all with the same story.

    I always thought the Mediterranean pseudo-steppe was a derivative of the Tarantala and popular at dance parties. Now I find that it is the type of vegitation covering the park from which I took various shots. It seems that soil, fire and goats have so trimmed the original bush over millenia that only hardy, grasses and shrubs survive.
    One advantage of a desolate landscape is that it is one remaining safe haven for the endangered Grilled Falcon, (in Italian falco grillaio, Latin Falco naumanni) and the rare capovacchio which I think is a Merlin in English, (Falco columbarius,) the smallest raptor in Europe. Alas, to small and fast for my lense.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Matera

    April 5, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    The old town of Matera is a major tourist destination being a UNESCO World Heritage site. The tourist season seems to have started here already, for I found hordes of schoolchildren bused in to learn something and clogging up the narrow streets.
    Unlike Craco for example, the town is a busy and growing collection of apartment blocks surrounding the Disney town with some unease generated by the coaches and throngs visiting the ancient sites.
    For ancient they are. People have been living here since the Neolithic era.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Sin

    April 4, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    As I crossed the Murgia Plateau , curiosity wouldn't allow me to pass pass the Crypt of Original Sin, maybe because it is situated in a winery. In a ravine, below ground level, there is a thousand years old cave occupied on and off since the Paleolithic and Neolithic eras.
    Around the 9th century it became the home of monks who had come over to southern Italy from Eastern Europe and Asia Minor. They created a chapel and covered the interior with frescoes.
    For most of the last millennium, the cave and its art have existed in obscurity. One 19th century historian drew pictures of it, but by the 1960s it was mostly used as a shelter for sheepherders.
    In 1963, a group of students exploring the area heard rumours of the Crypt and its wall art, and found it and then struggled with Matera’s reputation as the “shame of Italy” to get it recognised. Archaeologists only started to examine it in 1981, and in 1993, UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site, ensuring that the cave would be restored and preserved.
    By 2005, the crypt was opened to visitors but photography was and still is forbidden. The knowledgable archaeologist guiding the tour explained that we could download as many good quality images as we liked from their website.
    If you care to see them look here:

    http://criptadelpeccatooriginale.it/index.php?l…

    He also drew our attention to an unusual feature of the pictures. There are 5 sites in the world where Adam and Eve are depicted standing next to a figtree, (hence the figleaves,) suggesting that the forbidden fruit was not an apple as is commonly thought but a fig. This one is the earliest.
    In contrast to statements in the text, he also believed that he could detect the hands of three different artists. He thought that this would be consistent with the way medievil ateliers had one master designer and apprentices to colour in the details.
    Luckily grapes and their product are not forbidden: imbibing too much may be a sin though.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler
    1

    Quantum of Solace

    April 4, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Craco, founded in the 8th century sits on a cliff 400 meters off of the ground.
    Once it was important, confirmed by a Norman Tower from 1040, a convent from 1630, the ruins of St Nicholas’ church and bloated Angevin tax registers.
    After surviving the black plague, brigands and rapacious absentee landlords for more than 1,400 years, a landslide finally forced residents from Craco in 1991.
    10 Euros will get you a guided walk through the centre but having walked through one abandoned village already I couldn't see the point of another stroll through the streets. Numerous signs made it clear that this was a special tourist site, where every photo belongs to the administration and unauthorised shots like all of mine forbidden by the mayor.
    The Quantum of Solace, (partly filmed here,) is that it has become a popular film set. Several scenes from "Christ Stopped at Eboli" (directed by Francesco Rosi) were actually shot here in 1979. Other films include "King David" with Richard Gere, "Ninfa Plebea" by Lina Werthmuller, and the last scene of The Passion by Mel Gibson.
    The columns of a destroyed temple will surely engage fervent speculation by archaeologists in a few hundred years. Who were the Gods worshipped here, where only traces of 20thC transport can be found?    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    The town that dare not speak its name

    April 3, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Who could resist visiting a town known as the “town of misfortune”; Chillu Paese, (That Town,) in the local dialect as saying its name is believed to bring bad luck.
    The curse on Colobraro is as old as the place itself; but it wasn’t until the 20th century that the evil was fully awakened, thanks to a lawyer and a witch. The lawyer was proud never to have lost a case. In the middle of one case he rashly proclaimed that if he told a lie to the court the rooms chandelier would come crashing down. Of course, it did, but he still won claiming the opposing side had resorted to witchcraft as they had no better arguments.
    The townspeople and those from neighbouring villages began to believe that some of That Town’s women were actually witches who practiced dark magic. In the 1950s, people especially feared La Cattre, a wrinkled elderly woman many claimed was a sorceress. Anthropologists then began visiting the town to investigate its mysteries, but according to local lore they, too, soon fell victim to freak accidents and illnesses.
    Another legend concerns the remains of the Norman fortress of which only a few stone walls survive. It is inhabited by a mischevous sprite, being the soul of an unbabtised child. Wearing a red cloak with a hood it plays tricks on the unwary but will grant any wish if you can catch hold of its hood.
    This particular tale is very old and is often fused with the mythology of the brigands for which the region is famous. In this version, the brigands, who were welcomed and sustained by the ordinary folk as a gesture of defiance to uncaring authority, buried enormous quantities of plunder around the countryside. And forgot where it was hid. The sprite know though and if you catch one by the hood it will lead you to the treasure. However, you must not let go of its hood or it will run away and laugh at you, revealing nothing.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler
    1

    Badlands

    April 3, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    This part of Lucania is known as the badlands.
    “The endless expanse of dry clay, without a sign of human life, waving under the sun as far as eyes could see, far away, far away, they could melt in the white sky”. [Carlo Levi]
    Basically clay with pockets of sand, the rain carves gullies which are then baked in the firece sun and crack, eventually channelling further rainfall and forming these steep eroded hills, resembling a moonscape.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Ghost town

    April 3, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Alianello is half way up to Aliano and was abandoned in 1980 after an earthquake (6.9 Richter). The inhabitants moved 1km up the road and built a new town but the buildings still stand.
    Apparently Charles Dickens visited but I cannot discover if he wrote anything about it. Carlo Levi passed through on his way up the mountain but he too did not have much to say about it. I passed through it and also have nothing to say about it.
    Whilst I was nosing around I met a chap born in 1951 who did have quite a lot to say, but mainly about the civil administration and how they reburied Carlo Levi in a fancier tomb in Aliano when they realised what a drawcard it would be for the town. He mentioned that it used to be spelt Gagliano, something which had confused me since there is another town of that name a hundred km away, but CL had pointed out that etymologically it should be Aliano, so that is how it appears now. He was most enthusiastic about the enormous debt they owe the writer.
    Another interesting thing he said was that the Sauro river which converges with the Agri in the wide valley underneath used to be navigable and the people were able to take a ferry down to a larger town for work. That ended when the river was dammed. I tried to put dates to this, but could not understand his dialect: on the face of it the river must have begun to dry up long before the construction work to tally with what others have written.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Exile

    April 3, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    The fascists banished various non-believers, including some business rivals, to this part of Italy Basilicata. Amongst them was the writer Carlo Levi, imprisoned here between 1935 and ’36.
    It is hard to comprehend the unmitigated poverty of the peasant life he found. At one point the region was was an extremely prosperous trading centre on the Mediterranean circuit, but this all changed when the Spanish and Lombards arrived. They taxed everyone so harshly that many of the prosperous left, leaving the poor behind with nothing to do but rely on the produce of the land. Living at 850m with their fields on the plain almost vertically below, meant that they could spend 4hours a day commuting and at the end of it the clay soil was not very fertile: absentee governments which forced the larger estates to grow wheat soon found that the yield was insufficient to pay taxes. Only olives grow. The peasants endured even through the endemic malaria which was only eradicated during the 1980's. Child mortality was 50% and survivors were afflicted by the disease and malnourishment so they had little to live for. But they endured enough to give CL the title of his book, "Christ stopped at Eboli", which was a popular refrain to explain their semi-pagan, unpromising lives.
    Since he had a medical degree, CL was not allowed to read and paint as he would have liked, but was coerced into treating whatever he could with what little pharmaceuticals were around. For this as much as for publicising their plight, he earned their eternal gratitude and the enmity of those 'middle classes' (priests, doctors, government officials,) who feasted on the misery of the poor.
    Now, perhaps thanks to the literati who make the pilgrimage, the town is being restored and tarted up. The car allows residents to escape and the small streets all have an Ape 50 parked in them.
    As you leave the village you pass the “Fossa del Carabiniere” (policeman’s grave) because once some bandits threw a drunk Carabiniere down the steep slope.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Here be dragons

    April 3, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    I went to Sant'Arcangelo after reading Carlo Levi's book "Christ stopped at Eboli."
    In it he recounts how dragons used to live in the area, proved by a set of dragon horns held in a local church.
    Nobody in the nearly deserted town knew anything about it though and there were no references to 'Game of Thrones", so as all the churches were locked up tight, I had to leave taking the story on faith alone.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Flying fish

    April 3, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    This time the crossing only cost me 56 Euros for the 30 minute ride. The boat was not even half full, so I could sail virtually immediately and set off for Latronico, for it was here in 1982 that a fossil was found at an altitude of 980m ASL.
    It looks like a swordfish but has been classified as an istioforide (genus Makaira) which lived in the miocenico sea 10 to 30 million years ago. Its abut 235cm long and 95 high and the skeleton can just about be made out - after seeing a drawing of it! The detail photo shows a flipper.
    And no, I didn't draw an outline on the relic, I copied the print on an information panel.
    This species of fish was common in the tropical Atlantic and more rarely in the Med. If I said Ernest Hemingway "The old Man and the Sea" you can guess what we call these fighting fish nowadays.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    No portrait of the artist

    April 1, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    A couple of km before catching the ferry from Messina back to the mainland, I detoured a couple of hundred metres to visit the house of a local celebrity.
    Giovanni Cammarata was born on 29 Sept 1914 and died there in 2002.
    He learned the techniques of working cement as a child, working as a groom in a cement factory.
    He opened a small workshop making cement products after WWII and was granted land on which to build his business. A few years later the land was taken away from him by the State and given to his rival Mr.Rodriguez. I can only guess at the shenanigans going on, but obviously they never became BFF.
    Several years later, GC became an artist; producing a large number of works. Rather than sell them, he clung to them believing that they should become Messina's after his life.
    Unfortunately, the locals thought he was a crank and after his death, levelled his house / shed / workshop to make way for a supermarket carpark (in concrete.)
    His artistic ability has become recognised since 1990. Two restored works are exhibited at the Modern Art Gallery in Messina, and aothers are in the Basile Arts High School. The remains of his dwelling - part of the front wall - are all that remain.
    Even though his fame, if one is premitted to call it that, has spread, the locals still seem unconvinced.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Up and down

    April 1, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    On the way to the ferry I detoured up to the gay resort of Taormina.
    It took many litres of diesel to reach the top, and once there I turned around an went straight down for there was nothing to see except another hillside town. Very pretty to walk around and no doubt good restaurants but it is so isolated - even from the coast - that I cannot imagine staying there.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Dogs

    March 29, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Dogs abound: most of them strays. Bob fell for one, then two and now three. But a couple of others turn up regularly for a feed.
    Italy is renowned for its abandoned dogs and it is easy to be condescending about the people who appear to condone it. But hereabouts people do not have the money to pay a vet to register, inoculate, sterilize or even euthenise animals, particularly those not belonging to them. Most people with dogs claim that the dogs were strays who just turned up on the doorstep, so what could they do? I am told that Italian legislation forbids the killing of dogs which is why there are few if any dog pounds around. Imagine if Battersea Dogs Home was compelled to keep every dog that appeared for as long as it lived: it would soon be compelled to refuse animals, who would then be left to roam around! Some one should do something!
    So, the most senior dog is Big Dog, a rather wasted black and white mongrel with we suspect a physically unpleasant past judging by the way he walks. His claim to fame is to be a flea and tick magnet: his presence alone keeps the other dogs relatively free of them.
    The annual, Summer tick investation is starting and I am not sorry to be leaving. There are two waves of ticks as the little beasts start with four legs, slow done or something, and then grow another 2 later in the year when swarms can be found scurrying around. So far they have not been carrying any diseases, but with Africa so close it is only a matter of time.
    Next is a shaggy, retriever like, mongrel named Hollywood, who moons around like a film star whose time has passed. Most of the time he lies around but gets up to follow when one of us goes to the far side of the plot; then exhausted by the activity, he lies down for a snooze.
    Of course, Lula is my favourite. She gave birth to 6 little pups underneath the wooden floor of the bell tent when I was sleeping in it. I woke during the night hearing plaintive mewings, thinking that a cat was stuck underneath, for nobody realised she was about to whelp.
    Ants also are beginning to appear. They have been farming aphids through the Winter and now expect them to start working. This means collecting as much sap as possible from the almond trees for the sweet delight of their masters. Unfortunately, the trees don't much like being bled dry - who does? - and then refuse to produce many nuts. The local remedy, as there are no commercial, insecticide rich nut farms around, is the miraculous Savon de Marseille. Its quite simple really. A strong mix of this pure soap and water is sprayed all over the tree. It drys on the bugs who can no longer move and drop off. Thats all.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Saracen biology

    March 25, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    The path North from the bridge to the gorges is blanketed with flowers. Apart from the almond tree, I haven't the foggiest notion what they are though!

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Saracen gorge

    March 25, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    The bridge spans the Simeto river, whose gorges are the product of a lava flow.
    The basalt structures have been polished and shined by the endless flow water through the ages.
    This is the real reason locals come here: for a dip in the river on a Summer day. The water is too cold now, but soon, heated by the black stones, it will be lovely.Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Saracen bridge

    March 25, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    We took some time off from concreting to visit this bridge a few kilometres away.
    Apparently of Roman origins, though there is nothing to see, the Ponte Saraceno was rebuilt under Roger II. The four arches have different curves with attractive, two colour, stone banding.
    All roads lead to Etna.
    Here are my guides: Astrid, her aunty Frederica and her dad, Bob.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler
    1

    Climb every mountain

    March 24, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌙 3 °C

    To compensate for missing the active crater, I took a photo of the newest crater (formed in 2003,) named I believe Monte Barbagallo.
    On my way back, in the evening sun I found another crater, Monti Silvestri.
    There must be hundreds of buildings under the mountain: this one lies half buried by the side of the road up to Nicolosi Nord.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Mongibello

    March 24, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C

    On Sunday I took time off to climb this mountain, better known nowadays as Mount Etna.
    I think it is about 3,326 m high at the moment, although this varies with eruptions making it the highest and most active volcano in Europe and old, about 500,000 years.
    It has exploded violently in the past, but generally just farts regularly like a baby - with copious discharges. Eruptions have been documented since 1500 BC, when people living in the eastern part of the island were compelled to migrate to its western end. Since then there have been more than 200 eruptions, most fairly small.
    Etna's most powerful recorded eruption was in 1669, when explosions destroyed part of the summit and lava flows from a fissure on the volcano's flank reached the sea and the town of Catania, more than ten miles away. The Catanian townspeople came out to dig a channel that diverted lava away from their homes towards Paterno; whose inhabitants grew increasingly cross with the Catanians as the lava oozed slowly closer to them. Eventually, they forced the cityfolk choose between the wrath of Paterno or the wrath of Hephaestus / Vulcan. The Catanians wisely chose to abandon their quest.
    Etna's longest eruption began in 1979 and went on for thirteen years; its latest eruption began in March 2007, and continues as you may have seen in recent news bulletins.
    The walk starts at the pyramid, (a solar clock,) by Rifugio Sapienza, now the centre of the ski resort. Very soon the sparse vegitation gives way to the bleak, lunar landscape for which the mountain is famous. Clouds were blowing across the snow and lava which made it difficult to navigate and rather on the chilly side. Unfortunately, this plateau, the Torre del Filosofo (2920m) was as high as I was allowed to go without paying for a guided tour. Since the summit is rather unpredictable at present, I opted for caution and obeyed the sign.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Walls

    March 20, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    I could write about all the quaint mezo-Arabic stone walls carrying water channels. Stone stairs are built in each wall to allow people and dogs to cross between fields. You would be amazed and impressed.
    But I cannot tell a lie: this rocky land was cleared at the beginning of the last century. The fathers of some of the old locals built them with the help and encouragement of Il Duce. So much so that some local, country will not hear a bad word about Mussolini mentioned.
    Unfortunately there is too much land for one person to manage and pretty much everything is overgrown. Very pretty now, but a serious fire hazard in Summer: the council insists owners whipper strip the dead vegetation. Alas the strimmer doesn't work properly so I cannot help.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Bob's Toys

    March 20, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 14 °C

    Bob, (short for Frederic,) is better known as 'Danger Fire Bob' and is a self-educated artist with a talent for do-it-yourself projects. All around the site useful pieces of cars, metal, wood, plastic can be found ready to be turned into something artistic or an amazing contraption for his fire shows. [See for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq3io3m0A3E]
    The Mad Max buggy shoots fire from various places as it drives around, and the helicopters blades rotate in flames. [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpRk-L7O5hc]
    I rather like the bicycle in the shed [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGKWGupcNbU] though I'm not sure I would try it even if it was in working order.
    One of the problems of creativity in a rural environment is that many things get started but few finished as there is no pressing need to do so. One can do any little job that one feels like doing at the time. Working on the house has been like that, a little bit here a little there, a day to fix the greenhouse and some time the following week to plant seedlings.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Bob's place

    March 20, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    As an ex-travelling showman, Bob has had several buses / vans converted to living spaces. On acquiring this property within cooee of Etna, 10 years ago, the vans were converted to accommodation.
    The main block is an old, 10 tonne Saviem that belonged to the french CRS, (riot police.) It serves as the main bedroom, kitchen, dining room and sitting area. Somewhat of a squeeze.
    The bathroom is a Fiat Ducato with a wood-fired stove for hot water: surprisingly effective and you don't have to wait too long for it to heat up.
    The pizza oven is another home built item. One might think from the shape that porcine would be on the menu, built regrettably not.
    The diet here is high carb. Porridge for breakfast, pasta in a tomatoe sauce for lunch, and pizza (cheese and tomato,) for dinner. Of course, there are as many oranges to eat as one needs for the glucose to help breakdown the carbs. Occasionally a green vegetable turns up and one day we even had a lettuce. Luckily, in the food area, I am a gratitudarian so happily eat everything!    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Sicilian workaway

    March 20, 2019 in Italy ⋅ 🌬 15 °C

    This is my campsite on the ex-farm, now largely overgrown.
    There is a bell tent on a wooden floor that I can use. Large enough to stand upright and organise my clothes which is a welcome change from the limited height of the van. Unfortunately, it leaks and flaps like a loose sail in the wind, so I sleep in the van.
    Past the tent, in the distance, the town of Santa Maria di Licodia sits on it's hill. During the war the British bombed it and landed Parachute troops to capture the local dam / lake. It was rebuilt as a series of apartment blocks and shopping malls which somehow fails to attract tourists.
    The Philips family is Emanuela, Zoe, Jay and little Astrid. They live in Palermo during the week as Manuela, (as she prefers to be called,) could not find a teaching job nearby; something made harder by being a Steiner teacher.    Read more

  • Roland RoutierRenault RoamingTraveler

    Minorduomo

    March 2, 2019 in Italy ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    Enna also has a Duomo. Destroyed by fire in 1446, the cathedral was rebuilt over the next 200 years and is an interesting mixture of architectural styles. It even contains Classical ruins at the base of the pulpit.
    + The doors in beaten bronze are simple and well executed.
    + The paintings lining the galleries make it look like an old baronial hall.
    + The church is dedicated to St. Smurf, whose portrait you can see in the central bay.
    + The nave has a more Rococco feel
    + The roof is distinctly meo-arabic.    Read more

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